1006 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Pace. We are delighted to have you make your statement at 

 this time, Mr. Bennett, and your statement will be made a part of 

 your remarks. 



(The statement referred to follows:) 



I am grateful for this opportunity to appear in behalf of H. R. 29, which would 

 grant to the tung industry the price support without which its existence is 

 threatened. 



As a Florida Congressman, it is of interest to me that the life of the American 

 tung industry was really begun in a Florida cemetery. Five of the first seedlings 

 cultivated by the Division of Foreign Plant Introduction in the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry were in 1905 dispatched to the superintendent of a cemetery at Talla- 

 hassee, Fla., where they were planted but given little attention. In the autumn 

 of 1906 William H. Raynes, of that city, became interested in the neglected 

 l^lants and was given permission to transplant them. Only one of the 5 trees 

 survived, but that tree, still standing, serves as a monument to early pioneering 

 efforts to establish the culture of the tung tree in the United States. Later a 

 40-acre plot near Tallahassee, planted from seedlings from the original tree, 

 became the first bearing grove of tung trees in America. And in 1913 the Raynes 

 tree furnished sufficient crop to make possible the first trial expression of tung 

 oil in the United States. 



Florida today has more than an historical or experimental interest in tung 

 trees. National production of tung nuts in 1947 amounted to 53,200 tons, of 

 which Florida contributed 11,000. In 1948 production in the United States 

 rose to 67,200 tons, with Florida contributing 17,000 tons — or more than 25 percent. 



The Second District of Florida, which I represent, produces a little over 8 percent 

 of the national tung nut crop. In 1945 there were approximately 800,000 tung 

 trees under cultivation in my district. Today there are about 7,500 acres in 

 tun^ trees in my district. In the Second Coiiaressional District of Florida there 

 are 7 tung groves, representing a total investment of over $2,000,000. Two of 

 the four tung crushing mills in Florida are located in my district. Yoa can 

 readily appreciate the impact that the present disastrous condition m this industry 

 is having on the economy of the residents. 



The Government encouraged the establishment of this industry and found it 

 essential in time of war. We should not now let it deteriorate, not only because 

 we should not let our economy suffer but also to protect our local supply of this 

 vital war material. 



The United States production of tung oil is still small — dangerously small in 

 view of its being a critical war material. In 1948 we imported 133,000,000 pounds 

 of tung oil, while producing domestically only 15,000,000 pounds. Most of our 

 imports have come from China. 



A critical situation is with us now due to the flooding of the market with im- 

 ported tung oil. The domestic price of tung oil has dropped to 18 or 19 cents per 

 pound, and indications are that the real price may be about 17 cents and due for a 

 greater drop. Meanwhile, the cost of care and cultivation and harvesting has 

 risen. At 19 cents per pound, the sesult is a net loss to the tung grower of $11.79 

 per ton of production. 



Tung oil before and since World War II has been used industrially chiefly as a 

 drying agent in paints and varnishes or as a waterproofing agent. During World 

 War II, however, its qualities df value to military equipment were soon discovered 

 and the entire domestic supply of this oil was used by the armed services. Tung 

 oil went to war in the following manners: Covering the inside of high octane gas 

 tanks; insulating electrical coils; covering magnesium parts; in time bombs; in 

 the manufacture of all medical catheters purchased by the armed forces; as a 

 necessary base for marine paints; and waterproofing shells and other ammunition. 

 Its admitted superior qualities make tung oil a critical war material. 



With China now on the verge of complete Communist domination, and with the 

 huge imports of Chinese tung oil running down the domestic price to the point 

 where American tung growers are close to insolvency, a serious situation would be 

 upon us in the event of an outbreak of hostilities. It can reasonably be anticipated 

 that the Chinese imports of tung oil will cease in the possible case of hostilities 

 with Russia and even without hostilities under possible emergencies. If conditions 

 continue as they are today with the American tung industry, production of tung 

 oil (with the growers discouraged by a market for their product which does not 

 meet production costs) will steadily decline. There is danger, too, that the 

 fluctuation of tung oil in price and volume (caused by indiscriminate imports) will 

 completely lose for the American growers their domestic market. As stated in 



